Star Struck
by La fille danse
Summary: IN-PROGRESS. AU. He never wanted anything more than a normal life, with normal parents; a normal girlfriend. But for Naruto, it would never be that way. Especially now that there's someone new in his life that may change him forever. But sometimes we don't want change. And who knew you could find so much in common with someone so different? SasuNaruSasu. Yaoi.
1. Don't You See it in my Eyes?

**Title:** Star Struck

**Pairing(s):** Naruto/Sasuke

**Summary:** IN-PROGRESS. AU. He never wanted anything more than a normal life, with normal parents; a normal girlfriend. But for Naruto, it would never be that way. Especially now that there's someone new in his life that may change him forever. But sometimes we don't want change. And who knew you could find so much in common with someone so different? SasuNaruSasu. Yaoi.

**Rating:** T, for now.

**Disclaimer:** No copyright infringement is intended. This is for my own entertainment, and I make no profit.

**Warning(s):** Two boys falling in love among other things. Don't like, don't read.

**Author's Notes: **This is a story I wrote once upon a time posted on YouTube, and in a different fandom, but I'm attempting to revamp it 'cause it sucked and my writing style has changed since I was 14 (obviously). God, I wish you could see how bad it used to be. Laughable! Anyway, here it goes. Enjoy, loves. Let me know if there's anything I can make better!  
-CJ

X

Naruto checked his watch for the umpteenth time this morning. The bus should've damn well been there already.

He started to hum one of his favorite tunes to pass the time. It kept him sane, at least.

Naruto tried to sigh his stress and anxiety away and glanced around so that he might try to enjoy the scenery around him. Call it meditation.

His house was the very last on the street, and therefore the very last stop the bus arrived at. Honestly, it was just his luck.

There was another house next to Naruto's that was _technically _the last on the street, but it was empty. No one had lived in there for as long as Naruto could remember.

Finally, after what seemed like an agonizing amount of time, the bus pulled to a stop in front of him. He slung his backpack over one shoulder, and hopped on, nodding to the bus driver. With that, he made his way towards the back of the bus, where he knew his friend Sakura had saved him a seat. Sakura lived a couple of streets away from Naruto, and the third musketeer, Ino, lived close enough to the school that she just walked.

The bus was unusually chatty that day; mostly girls babbling on. This fact in particular wasn't unheard of, but they seemed to exert even more energy and bubbles than usual. Most of the guys seemed all but interested. Naruto plopped down next to Sakura.

"What's all the commotion about?"

As soon as she acknowledged Naruto next to her, she squealed.

"_Naruto_! Did you hear?"

Her face was pink and bubbly, and she looked exceptionally made-up today. There was something Naruto was certainly missing here.

"Hear what? Why are all the girls jumping out of their skins?"

She giggled, and replied, "Because! There's going to be a new kid at school tomorrow!"

Naruto couldn't help but wonder why that was anything special at all. He guessed that perhaps because their small town of Konoha almost never received any new kids (because no one really ever moved there), that maybe it had something to do with having a new face in town.

"Okay... so? Why is that a big deal?"

"This is no ordinary new kid! It's Sasuke Uchiha!"

As soon as she said it, almost all the girls on the bus screamed. God, that was awful.

"Okay, ow! Sasuke Uchiha? Like the famous celebrity? Why?"

She smiled her widest smile, and exclaimed, "Who cares! He's coming to _our_ school! Aren't you excited?!"

Rolling his eyes, Naruto said, "Sure. I'm ecstatic. Don't you see it in my eyes?"

"Oh, come on Naruto. You're not even a little happy that we have a _celebrity_ moving to our community?"

He shook his head once, and said, "Nope," popping the 'p.'  
"Not really. What difference does it make? It's probably just one more jerk added to our population. I actually feel bad for the community, because all the girls are going to stick to him like glue and then have their hearts ripped out."

She rolled her eyes.

"You don't know that. Maybe he's really sweet."

Naruto flashed a mocking smile for her naivety.

"You only think that because he's on the cover of every teen magazine. The media has brainwashed every teenage girl in the country."

She looked down and mumbled, "He's known globally, actually."

Naruto scoffed. In return, Sakura looked back up at him with a glare, and said what any typical girl her age would've said.

"You're just jealous."

Naruto nodded, molding his face into one of stone.

"Jealous indeed. I should be famous for my devilish good looks, not that guy!"

Naruto let out a chuckle in jest while Sakura punched his arm, and rolled her eyes again.

Naruto got his last few laughs out and then the two chatted until the bus came to a stop at the school with a loud squeal.

Everyone raced to the doors, desperate to escape this crowded, sweaty, stuffy bus, and to get outside and greet the beautiful fresh air.

Soon, Sakura met up with Ino, and so began a typical day for Naruto: walking just behind his two babbling, boy-crazy best friends while shoving his hands into his pockets, staring at his shoes, and trying to drown out their teenaged, girly, fluffy talk with the musical symphony of his own thoughts. Okay, so maybe his thoughts weren't that profound, but they were better than listening to lip gloss and high heels or whatever.

Some people might say that Naruto led a lonely life, considering that he seemed to hardly speak to the few friends he had. But it was enough for Naruto, as long as he knew there were people that loved him; that cared.

At that moment, the bell rang, signaling class time, so the trio silently parted ways, and Naruto headed towards first period.

X

Throughout the day, it seemed every class Naruto went to was chalked full of jittery girls who all screamed only one name.

"Sasuke Uchiha!" someone shouted, and before Naruto could think to cover his poor ears, there was a pounding of ear-shattering shrieks.

It was only Monday around lunchtime and Naruto was already sick of that name. He hadn't even arrived yet! Naruto rolled his eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time and began his journey to the cafeteria, keeping his eye out for Sakura and Ino.

He finally found them amongst yet another group of giggling girls, to his surprise. Oh wait, Naruto wasn't surprised in the slightest.

Afraid they would be suffocated by the growing crowd, he grabbed their wrists, and pulled them away to a random lunch line.

Sakura and Ino giggled, and Ino piped up, "Oh yeah, Naruto! So Sakura told me how you didn't seem too pepped up about…" she had to whisper so no one would scream. "Sasuke Uchiha."

But even when she said it herself, she and Sakura couldn't stop themselves from letting out, a soft, high-pitched squeal. Naruto was going to cut his ears off.

"No, I'm not necessarily 'pepped up about it.'"

They grabbed their lunch trays and Ino replied, "Why not! What's so bad about a famous, amazing, hot celebrity?!"

Naruto shook his head, offering a slight smile at Ino's enthusiasm.

Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto said, "There's nothing really bad about it, I guess. I'm just sick of all the hype. All these girls are threatening to make me deaf."

They both had confused looks on their faces and Naruto could not believe they didn't notice it.

"What do you mean?" Sakura.

Naruto sighed, covered his ears, and prepared for the worst.

"OMG! Sasuke Uchiha!" he shouted.

Just as predicted, there was an earth-rattling roar of screeching teenage girls.

Sakura and Ino giggled, and Naruto continued, "I just think that we'd be better off without him, or at least without all this screaming. And besides, out of all these people screaming their love for him, he can only date one person. That's gonna hurt lots of people."

Ino shook her head.

"Oh, just let the people live their fantasies, will you?"

Naruto smirked and nudged her.

"Not without a fight."

They shared a laugh and finally sat down at a table to eat their lunch.

X

Late that night, in his dream, Naruto shivered as a bead of cold sweat dribbled down the back of his neck. Around him was nothingness. It was too dark to see anything, including shadows and shapes, or the moon and the stars. Just nothing.

It was freezing cold and he had to hold himself tightly to stay warm.

There was something he was supposed to be looking for, but he wasn't sure just what. He just kept pursuing his search.

With each step he took, there was a "crunch" as his foot crushed the fragile earth beneath him.

Suddenly, an innocent laughter filled the empty air in front of him, forcing images of smiles to burn into his memory. The laughter was contagious and Naruto smiled as the giggles danced around him. The voice that they belonged to sounded so perfect, like sweet honey. It made him want to sing, so he began to hum along while the chuckles continued.

Suddenly the laughter stopped, and Naruto felt cool, sweet breath on his cheeks. He caught a tiny glimpse of the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. The lips pressed to his jaw line, and just as he was about to beg them for more, they quickly broke away from him, teasing him.

The lips whispered into his ear, "Come with me."

It was impossible for him not to obey the beckoning call.

Then to Naruto's wretched dismay, a heavy, lung-filling mist formed all around him, and he could hear cries for help.

He was searching again, for hours it seemed, this time to find out where they disappeared to, but it was pointless. They were gone forever in the thick cloud of smoke, and there was nothing Naruto could do.

Naruto jolted awake with a tear that strained down his face as he had many times.

He had that dream quite often, actually, and still hadn't gotten over it. There seemed something quite significant about identifying the person attached to those lips and he still couldn't put his finger on it. Whoever it was always slipped from his fingers. Always.

X


	2. Star Struck

**Author's Notes: **I hope you guys are okay with me calling Sasuke by just his last name, Uchiha. I find myself _really _wanting to call him "_the _Uchiha" because I've read that a million times in other fics. But I think in this one, since it is an AU school setting and I am treating them more as Americans (I know, I know) I think it's more natural for Naruto to call him simply by his last name. It sounds fine if I were to have Sasuke call Naruto "Uzumaki," but for some reason when the tables are turned it feels a bit awkward. Sorry about that! As always, I appreciate any and all feedback, and enjoy!

-CJ

X

All night, Naruto tossed and turned on his old, lumpy mattress, unable to get a wink of sleep.

He glanced at the clock which told him there was at least another hour and a half until it was time to get ready for school.

Naruto sighed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and shaking off the sleepless night. He had been awake since that dream. He tried, then failed to remember anything more about it.

Suddenly, a major headache began to form. What a marvelous way to start off the worst day of the week, Tuesday. It had always been his least favorite. On Mondays you were still numbly happy about the weekend, but by Tuesday, the true nature of the ever endless week really sunk in. You still had to suffer four more days until another blissful break from High School Hell.

Naruto slowly shuffled out of bed and into the shower, taking as much time as he pleased. As the droplets dribbled down his back, he allowed the refreshing water to wash away all his tension.

He had plenty of time afterwards to carefully and artfully pick out an outfit and do his hair. Okay, well, he picked the first shirt he saw and put on the crumpled jeans in the corner, and then looked at his hair in the mirror and shrugged. But still.

By the time Naruto would have normally woken up, he was settled on the couch, eating some cheap, off-brand version of Froot Loops. If ever asked to testify, Naruto would truthfully describe them as tasting the way wet dog smells. But he was on a budget, and it was all he could afford with what earnings he made at his job at the local diner.

Once Naruto finished his bowl of shitty wet dog cereal, he carefully and quietly peeked into his parent's room. They were sleeping like rocks, too careless to ever make sure if he made it to school safely.

Naruto sighed again and stepped outside into the cool air, clutching his backpack as he left. The school bus wouldn't be there for at least another 45 minutes, but he decided to stay out anyway. It really was a beautiful day, after all. The clouds seemed exceptionally fluffy, and the sun was barely peering out from behind them. It created the beautiful effect of "heavenly" rays shining down to the earth. The grass and the trees were extraordinarily green, and the sky unbelievably blue. Naruto smiled softly despite himself. Not bad, for a Tuesday. The exquisite nature was incredibly reassuring that something wonderful was soon to happen.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, a brash voice interrupted his peace from behind.

"Why are you smilingly so stupidly?"

And there was his headache rearing its ugly head again. It was, after all, still a stupid Tuesday.

Annoyed, Naruto closed his eyes and rubbed his temples before wheeling himself around, diverting his attention from the peacefulness to glare at the owner of the comment.

"Beautiful day today," Naruto said, but he spat as if it were an insult.

Naruto eyed the man up and down. He looked to be about his age. He had pale skin, dark eyes, and dark hair that stuck up like a duck's butt in the back. He also appeared as if he had a stick lodged up his ass.

Naruto murmured, "Not like _you'd _care or anything..."

The snooty guy was silent behind Naruto, so he turned back to gaze at the empty street before him.

There was shuffling, and soon, Naruto could feel a presence beside him.

The guy turned to him and asked in an unapologetic tone, "What's your name?"

Naruto could almost snort at the weak attempt to make amends.

"Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto turned the slightest bit, so he could see the other man's face.

He nodded slowly, then said with a smug smirk, "Sasuke. Sasuke _Uchiha_," mocking the way Naruto had introduced himself.

Uchiha sat there with icy eyes trained on Naruto like he was expecting him to say something revolutionary.

So Naruto decided to have a go at him. He gave him a funny look, and smirked.

"Why are you staring at me like that? It's a little creepy."

Uchiha's strange expression morphed into a hint of a frown. At that was Naruto's interpretation, really. This guy's facial expressions were practically miniscule.

"You don't know me?" he asked, after a long pause.

Naruto restrained the urge to roll his eyes. After the beating his ears had taken the previous day at school, Naruto _wished _he didn't know who Sasuke Uchiha was. Still, it was fun to mess with him. Besides, how many times does one get the chance to tease a celebrity in their lifetime? Naruto couldn't _not _take advantage of the moment.

Naruto shot him another weird glance, and asked with fake confusion, "Uhh... should I know you? Aren't you the new kid?"

As icily as it seemed like he could, Uchiha retorted, "Sasuke _Uchiha_? As in, _Uchiha_. Famous singer, songwriter, actor? You really don't know me?"

Laughing softly to himself, Naruto smiled, keeping up the act.

"Hmm... Ohh! You're that guy that all the girls are crazy for. I guess _this _is what you look like after all..."

Naruto trained his eyes on him and made it clear he was surveying the other man.

"I guess I don't know what I was expecting…" Naruto trailed off, purely teasing him.

Naruto turned his back once again, keeping his composure to elongate the joke. With such a big ego like Uchiha's, Naruto seriously doubted that his comment really put a dent in the celebrity's feelings. Still, Uchiha glared at him, his features stern as stone.

Suddenly, the bus rolled around the corner, and was about to come to the stop.

Uchiha turned around surprisingly gracefully to face Naruto.

"At least I'm a step up from you. What's a poor, dirty little dobe like you got on an Uchiha?" he bit out.

Naruto dropped his jaw and his eyebrows knitted together in surprise. He expected that the guy might be rude, but not that rude.

As the bus pulled to a stop, he sneered and said to Naruto, "And you better find a way to keep that shut," gesturing to his mouth. He shoved passed Naruto, and while climbing the steps of the bus, he murmured over his shoulder, "because it looks like you're ready to blow the next guy who's willing."

Naruto shut his mouth begrudgingly, rolled his eyes, and scrambled in after him.

"Teme," he muttered.

X

As Naruto made his way over to his usual seat next to Sakura, he locked eyes with a surrounded Sasuke Uchiha, who flashed Naruto another icy stare as he passed. The whole bus was crowded towards him, desperately trying to make their impressions on him. Girls batted their eyelashes that were over-coated with mascara, and seemed to hike up their skirts a notch. Guys crowded around him too, hoping to gain popularity by kissing his ass. Naruto could not roll his eyes enough.

He shrugged it off until he noticed that Sakura was one of the many girls crowding around Uchiha. Annoyed, he flung himself down on their seat without her.

Naruto bitterly watched his best friend from behind. At least she had the sensibility to dress with normal attire. But there was no way Uchiha was paying a cent of attention to her. Why would he, when there were plenty of sluts in the sea for the bastard to go after? Sakura was not at all his type, and it made Naruto a little angry to see her throwing herself at him anyway.

Naruto tried to grab her hand to pull her away from the madness, but she couldn't spare a second glance to him. He sighed and sat alone near the back of the bus until they finally showed up at school.

The bus pulled to a complete stop, and Naruto was growing impatient as no one got off the bus. Everyone was eagerly insisting that Uchiha should be the first to get off. It was ridiculous! After at least five minutes of fake chivalry from the students, Naruto finally angrily pushed through the crowd and jumped off the bus. He could feel curious eyes tracing his back, but continued towards the school. This might just be the longest year of Naruto's life.

X

Later, at lunch, Naruto again had to play savior as he pulled his two best friends away from a growing crowd of Sasuke Uchiha fans, not allowing them to hover over him, just like everyone else.

The guy was a giant ass, but he still needed some space just like any other human. Then again, his ego was so big that it probably wouldn't matter. Still, Naruto didn't want Sakura and Ino falling all over him, knowing that it would only end in heartbreak.

Sometimes he wished he had someone real to talk to… someone who didn't just talk about cute guys and clothes all day. Nevertheless, Naruto loved them and wanted them to be different from all the other girls who forced themselves on Uchiha.

As he finished another bite of his ramen, Naruto said, "You guys should probably stay away from this Uchiha guy… I think he could be trouble," using his chopsticks to point at them.

They both raised an eyebrow at him.

"I mean, look at the growing stampede over there! One could get seriously injured," he teased, giving a little chuckle.

Ino and Sakura shared some kind of knowing look, and they smirked at me. "That's not what you really think. How are you still sold on Sasuke being such a big jerk? All the magazines like, ever, say that he's sweet, and caring… and not to mention _hot_!"

They both giggled, really tipping Naruto's iceberg. If they had only been there while Uchiha and he were waiting at the bus stop.

"Well, talk is cheap," Naruto offered as a polite alternative to repeating the crude words Uchiha had spit at him earlier that morning. "There's no sense in falling head over heels for someone that you don't know. I just think that he's superficial. And the last thing I want is for one of my two very best friends in the whole world to get hurt."

The smile that stretched across Naruto's lips was forced and he hugged them almost halfheartedly. His friends pretended like they bought it, but it was obvious that they were not soaking up a single word that flew out of his mouth.

X


	3. The English Wizard

**Author's Notes: **I've taken a small liberty here that I just wanted to make clear… So this is set in Japan, technically. But I, the American author, do not speak Japanese, so everything is written in English (duh). Anyway, in this chapter, I mention their English class. I ask you to treat this as their foreign language class. None of them really know English, except for what they learn in class. So I will mention them struggling with English a bit, but just note that they are struggling with a foreign language. (I didn't want to bother with making it French or something, because I don't know any other languages and would be relying solely on the very poetically unreliable Google translate). Ugh, also I don't know the grammatical rules that may be confusing when learning English from Japanese, so I'm just gonna give it a whirl and hope it makes enough sense. It's not that integral to the story or anything, I'm just nit-picky about my details. If you happen to be an expert on this sort of thing and I did something wrong that could be adjusted, feel free to tell me!

In the same vain, I also wanted to apologize for my lack of honorifics. I don't know them all well enough to use them properly on my own, so I'd rather just leave them out entirely to save myself from offending anyone or sounding cheesy/cringey at times if I use the wrong one.

Also, I know that Naruto is Japanese just like everyone else in the Naruto world. Sasuke assumes he is American (and therefore good at English) because he is blond. Naruto doesn't correct him. This is just something I found convenient and made up, but I know it's not reality. I just want to save myself from any possible anger due to deviating from canon… I did say this was an AU fic, and this is a pretty minor discrepancy, in my opinion. That said, I will try my hardest to maintain the integrity of the characters' personalities :)

Lastly, I have changed the rating to M for good measure because I do not like to be polite with my vocabulary.

Sorry my notes are often quite long. Story time now. Enjoy. :)

-CJ

X

To Naruto's greatest dismay, Uchiha was in his last three classes of the day. Honestly, it was one of the worst things he could think of. Whatever divine power existed, it certainly wanted to punish him. He thought he should congratulate it on its cruel creativity.

His ears, however, were not so grateful. Surely he'd be deaf by the end of the year if enough people kept screaming the teme's name.

The point was that it got on his very last nerve that every single person in the class was going gaga over Sasuke Uchiha. Even the teachers were treating him like some sort of deity. Was Naruto the only person in this entire school not blinded by their adoration of the star?

They sat in seventh period English now, the last class of the day. However, not a single word of English was to be heard. Naruto shot fiery daggers at Ms. Manning when she sat Uchiha in the middle of the room, right smack-dab next to him. Then, he shifted his angry glare to the side of the Uchiha's head and mildly hoped that looks could kill.

"So, Sasuke Uchiha. How would you greet yourself in English?" she asked him, beaming at her new pupil.

His face was expressionless, but the cocky smile was nearly flamboyant in his eyes.

"Hello," he replied effortlessly.

The whole class, it seemed, ridiculously clapped their hands, giggling and cheering for him as if this were some astounding feat.

Naruto rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time and scoffed.

"When'd you learn that one, first grade?" he muttered under his breath.

Uchiha caught the remark and shot his own stony glare at Naruto before he returned to his posse of worshipers.

Naruto found himself once again endlessly grateful that this was this last class of the day. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to tolerate this insanity. The bell would ring soon, and Ms. Manning seemed to realize this too, so she picked up her piece of chalk and wrote down the homework assignment for the night. She repeated her writing out loud in English, and then as the bell rang, she bid everyone goodbye until the next day. Fina-fucking-lly.

The moment the teacher dismissed them, Naruto rushed out of the room, hopefully to avoid the crowd of people that he had already learned to expect would wait outside of Uchiha's classes.

This year, Naruto was lucky to have scored a locker adjacent to one of the school's side exits, so he could retrieve all this things, and then get out of there in a flash. Just as he slammed his locker door shut, he heard an uproar of screaming girls. The only word that came out of their mouth was one name.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut and swore. He should have known his hopes of leaving without getting swept up by the undertow were too good to be true.

Uchiha came speeding down the hall in his direction. Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he found himself faced against a stampede. He ducked his head in a useless effort to camouflage, and prayed for mercy.

Suddenly, he felt a tug on his wrist and then he was being dragged outside and swiftly pulled into a tight corner against the rough brick of the school building, hidden from view. When they realized they had lost the Uchiha's presence, the stampede seemed to reluctantly disperse.

Naruto had formed the words "thank you," on his tongue before he looked up and saw that stupid duck-butt in front of him. He swallowed the sentiment and hastily started off in a new direction.

Only, he was bound by the tight grip on his wrist. He snapped his face up to meet Uchiha's eyes. It was a silent, lethal stand-off and Naruto had no idea why it was happening in the first place.

"Let me go," he snarled.

"No."

Naruto fumed.

"Why the hell not?!" He tried to wriggle free from Uchiha's grasp, only to find his hold tightening and sort of alarmingly difficult to escape from.

"Let me go, teme. What the hell do you want? I have a bus to catch!"

"Look," Uchiha grimaced like he'd eaten something rotten. "I need your help,"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in query and opened his mouth to prepare for an all but poised spiel about where he could shove his help. But the look on the bastard's face was delightfully constipated, so he held his tongue and motioned for Uchiha to continue.

"I need you to tutor me in English. Tonight, preferably."

Naruto tried really hard to keep himself from snorting. Really.

He did anyway.

"You? The English _wizard_? How could that be? _You,_ of all people, need help in English?" Naruto gasped in mock awe.

Uchiha rolled his eyes and Naruto squared his shoulders, proud of his wit.

"Yes."

He released Naruto's arm hesitantly, and Naruto immediately crossed his arms.

"Why should I? I mean, why me? There are plenty of other people in this damn school that would be completely overwhelmed to teach you English."

He nodded curtly, then glanced at Naruto's vibrantly blond hair.

"I figured you would be the best in the class, having come from… what, America? Am I wrong?"

Naruto huffed and adjusted his posture.

"Of course I'm the best!"

"Of course," Uchiha repeated. Naruto almost beamed until the bastard added, "no one can be so horrible at every single thing they try, usuratonkachi."

Once again, Naruto was fuming.

No longer held back by Uchiha's death grip, he stormed off.

Uchiha sighed almost dramatically behind him.

"Please," he said. The word sounded as though it was painful.

Naruto turned around to face Uchiha and eyed him up and down, assessing his sincerity.

While he was assessing, he did happen to notice that Uchiha was annoyingly, devastatingly good-looking.

But that was beside the point.

"Fine. Whatever. You're lucky I'm free." He glanced at the deserted bus station, the bus that would regularly take him home now long gone. "But my ride just left so it's going to take a while for me to walk to your place."

Uchiha's face lit up minutely with something very smug. He motioned for Naruto to follow him.

They walked the distance to the parking lot in a bit of an uncomfortable silence, until Uchiha gestured to a car a few paces away.

"My mother dropped it off here a few hours ago," he said as he pulled out a pair of keys from his pocket. He pressed a button and the Mercedes made a beeping noise to signal its unlocked doors.

Naruto rolled his eyes once again, for what must have now been the thousandth time.

Damn rich, famous snob. 

X

The entire way home, Naruto really gave his best effort not to be impressed with Uchiha's ride.

It proved to be a rather difficult task.

Naruto justified this in that impressive people and _nice _people could be mutually exclusive. Nice was a characteristic he valued more highly above impressive. Right?

"Can I get you a drink?" Uchiha asked as he swung open his front door.

Naruto declined as he followed behind Uchiha into his home. He was not about to get comfortable in the lion's den.

He speculated what a strange and slightly surreal experience this was, walking into this house in this moment in time. Years ago, this was the same previously abandoned, battered up house that he, Sakura, and Ino used to camp out in back in elementary school. This very house was cluttered with his own memories of funny ghost stories, black and white movie nights, secrets and declarations of friendship, pretend play, and other childhood nostalgia. Now he hardly even recognized it. The thing that made it even more surreal was that now this was a celebrity's home. He was walking into this old, familiar, yet crazily unfamiliar house that now belonged to a celebrity he had met not even a day ago. Naruto couldn't quite shake this strange dichotomous feeling.

If the guy wasn't such an asshat, he might even be inclined to think this was up there with one of the most surreal things that had ever happened to him. But Uchiha was, in fact, an asshat.

He briefly glanced around, inspecting his surroundings. Of course the redecorated version of this house was fantastic and awe-inspiring. He hadn't really known what he had expected to walk into, but he supposed this was pretty much in the same ballpark.

"Right, so should we just go ahead and get right to work, then? I don't plan on staying here much longer than I have to."

The corners of Uchiha's mouth pulled downwards slightly. Naruto cocked his head at that, but then decided he didn't care what that expression meant.

After a moment, he added, "Where do you wanna...?"

Naruto left the question hanging open-ended, gesturing to the spacious area around them.

Uchiha's gaze lingered on Naruto a moment longer, and then he started heading up the stairs. Naruto stared at his back for a second and then trailed behind him, ready to get this over with. The bastard had a really peculiar style of communication, Naruto decided.

Naruto had followed him into what was apparently his bedroom. Uchiha plunged onto the bed, lying on his stomach with his ankles crossed in the air. Naruto settled for the floor, against the wall, all the way across the room. At this, Uchiha gave him a bizarre _look_. Again. As if to suggest that _he_ was the bizarre one for choosing the floor to sit. Naruto didn't really know what to interpret from this information either so he just ventured onwards.

A few minutes into working on the assignment independently, Naruto piped up, "So what is it that you need help with?"

They were only reviewing this week, and it was on simple things, like clothing items. Naruto thought the assignment itself was easy, too.

Uchiha appeared to analyze the textbook intently. He took so long to reply that Naruto was about to repeat the question. Then, he glanced up.

"First of all… what does 'hat' translate to?"

Naruto gave him the translation and politely complimented his pronunciation.

"And… 'blouse'?"

Naruto quirked a brow. "Do you just not know the vocabulary? Because you don't really need me for help with things like that, idiot. You could just look in the book."

Uchiha narrowed his eyes. "I know the vocabulary, dobe."

"Yeah, you know 'hat' and 'blouse'," Naruto quipped.

Uchiha turned his chin up and seemed content to pretend he hadn't heard Naruto's comment.

X

After about a half hour more of studying, Uchiha spoke up again. "Naruto."

Naruto glanced back up at Uchiha, quirking his lip. "Do you need to know how to say 'I am a bastard' next?"

"Just help me," Uchiha asserted rather aggressively.

Naruto help up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, Mr. Bossy Pants."

Naruto earned a snort and a mocking look for his goofy comment. He chuckled good-naturedly and grinned widely at Uchiha. Then Uchiha seemed to search his eyes intently, so Naruto cleared his throat.

"Which question do you need help with?"

"Here," Uchiha said, patting the spot on the bed next to him and gesturing for Naruto to come look at his paper.

Naruto jokingly waggled his eyebrows at Uchiha at the suggestion, a purposefully over-dramatic gesture to silently test the waters and gauge how skeptical he should be of the bastard's intentions. Uchiha gave a roll of his eyes in response, so he figured he was safe.

Naruto hopped up on the bed next to Uchiha, sitting upright while Uchiha still laid on his stomach.

This time, Uchiha had an actual question that somewhat validated Naruto's necessity to be there helping him. Every now and then, he needed that assurance that his presence was purely academic. He didn't want any lines getting crossed here.

"Can you tell me if I translated this right?" Uchiha asked, scooting his paper closer to Naruto.

Naruto scanned his answer for a minute.

"Yeah, okay. So most of this is good. The only thing is that when the pronoun is he or she, like in this sentence," here, Naruto pointed over Uchiha's shoulder at his paper, "you need to add an 's' to the verb. I wear a jacket, and she _wears_ a jacket. Make sense?"

Uchiha glanced at him, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. Naruto couldn't help but follow the movement with his eyes. He licked his own lips unconsciously, and then realized what he was doing and cursed himself internally.

Uchiha nodded and corrected his answer.

Then the idiot went and dropped his pencil on the ground below the bed. Instead of getting up to retrieve it like a normal person, Uchiha stayed on the bed and stretched his body to reach as far as he could to follow where the pencil had landed. The movement had his shirt riding halfway up his back and Naruto's eyes immediately wandered to the newly revealed skin and lingered there. Uchiha's skin looked smooth and soft and _toned. _His eyes didn't stop there as traveled down to his tight-jean-clad ass. God, but it was a _nice ass_. Naruto stared and found himself wanting to explore more. He wanted to touch…

Uchiha finally reached his damn pencil, and turned to face Naruto, possibly to ask another question. Naruto sharply snapped out of his reverie and he could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks instantly. He had definitely, undeniably been checking out Uchiha's backside. He quickly hid his blush back into his studies.

Naruto was doomed.

Either Uchiha didn't notice or didn't care to comment, because he went back to the assignment too.

X

As they worked on each question individually, at snail pace, Naruto was beginning to yawn. It was only 8 then, but he had gotten close to no sleep the previous night. He wasn't sure how much longer he could bear to keep his eyelids open.

"Naruto?"

Naruto was close to dozing off when he answered, "Mhmm?"

He closed his eyes, and just listened to Uchiha's voice.

"I need your help... I don't quite understand how I'm supposed to translate this… here, just take a look at it yourself."

He fluttered his eyes open slightly to find Uchiha handing him his paper again. This time, he was sitting up next to Naruto and so they had to sort of lean together in order for them both to see it properly. Naruto looked over the question slowly, but admittedly, he got a little distracted. This one was easier and he was tired.

He inhaled deeply through his nose, preparing for a long sigh, when he recognized the smell of honey. Honey, and something else. Almonds? He tried again.

Yep, honey and almonds.

It was Uchiha. Actually, it was Uchiha's hair. It was like one big, honey-almond-scented duck-butt.

Naruto started to doze off again and gently rested his head against something surprisingly soft. It felt nice brushing against his cheeks. Smelled nice too. It was all very nice.

"Naruto."

Naruto didn't care much too really pay attention. He cared more about the soft, nice substance. "Mmm?" he replied groggily.

"Naruto," Uchiha said, more harshly this time. His tone came with a small shove.

Naruto was startled into full wakefulness.

That's when the time and place registered, and Naruto was soon aware of what was happening. His cheeks flushed red even brighter than before. He was literally _smelling _and _Oh, God, nearly cuddling _Uchiha's hair. He was mortified. Doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed.

His mind was racing with the embarrassment of it and with the things he thought Uchiha must be thinking of him (even though he definitely did not care at all). He dared a glance.

But Uchiha's face was unreadable. Naruto didn't know what to make of it, like many of Uchiha's expressions.

It wasn't his suave yet bored typical disposition… but it was similar. He was giving Naruto a _look _that he wanted to call the stare of a thousand stares. It was intense to say the least.

Naruto couldn't gauge if the look was hostile, only mildly annoyed, or something else entirely.

Either way, he became a deer in headlights.

Uchiha leaned in a bit and Naruto's breath caught in his chest.

Finally, he said, "Naruto shouldn't you go home? Your parents must be—"

"Trust me, they won't care—"Naruto blurted. He felt as if he had put his foot in his mouth. It was true, they didn't care about what he did, but saying it like that seemed to imply some deeper meaning about what exactly he was doing here. Well, the way he said it sounded like he wanted to stay. "I mean… no you're right, I should go. I… uh, yeah. I'm going."

In a flurry of papers, books, and flushed cheeks, Naruto was soon out the front door and headed home.

Naruto was well and truly doomed.

Tuesdays really were the worst.

X


End file.
